Lots of spare camp time: Figure 4 deadfall

Okay I had maybe too much spare time at camp this weekend, but I had fun. Anyone tinker around with primitive traps? I haven't made one of these in over a decade but it came back like riding a bicycle. Darn near hair trigger. I made a better set but caddisgirl accidentally accidentally mistook it for kindling... oops LOL.

Next I want to try the Peyote (edit: or is it Paiute?) deadfall... never made one of those before.

Disclaimer: We don't leave these unattended and would only let them fall under Schedule B or Schedule C circumstances

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNVWYnCm9B4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNVWYnCm9B4

You might want to be careful with Peyote :).....

Very cool trap.

Very cool, a figure 4 deadfall.....I have only done snares and the one with the bent over branch under tension. that once activated springs up and snares the prey....

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Originally Posted by weatherby_man

You might want to be careful with Peyote :).....

Very cool trap.

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You're right. It turns out the Peyote trap works very differently. Ultimately the prey is beamed up by an alien spaceship.

I did some more "research" (watching YouTube videos) into the "Paiute" dead fall trap. It seems to be a lot more tricky than the figure 4, but is more consistent and much more sensitive on average than the figure 4 as it uses a string toggle switch.

I will give it a try with something light so I'm not smashing my fingers.

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Originally Posted by HarryToolips

Very cool, a figure 4 deadfall.....I have only done snares and the one with the bent over branch under tension. that once activated springs up and snares the prey....

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It's a bit of an unorthodox figure 4. In my limited experience (making / tinkering with a dozen or so figure 4's over my lifetime) it's pretty much lucky of the draw how sensitive you can set the trap while actually getting it to hold a payload. It's hard to have it both ways.

Rather than planning for everything to be tight and perfect and relying on intentional bait stick placement for sensitivity, I am finding that keeping everything sloppy, attaching the bait stick before setting the pay load (with no notch to connect support stick to the load bearing stick allowing it to slide and settle and in turn allowing the the bait stick to settle wherever it settles) I want to see it "barely" hold together and if I can't set it off by lobbing something 1/4 the weight of a mouse at it I'll sabotage the notches between the bait stick and support stick (taking some meat off, rounding it up a little, making it looser) then when I'm setting the payload I want to see the connection between the bait stick and support stick "almost" fail and kick out, just setting by a few fibers or fraction of a mm, bonus if it's trying to twist out sideways... but once you get it working using this method, the sensitivity is consistent every time, it doesn't depend on any guess work about how sensitive you "think" you placed the bait stick. Hope that makes sense.

I have way too much spare time and am easily amused. I consider it a good thing though :)

I'd love to try snaring snowshoe hare sometime... almost enough to take the trapper course. I guess in the mean time I could always play around with some snare wire and try making some traps.